Powell’s interview with Jonathan Safran Foer:
Dave: Something I want to ask: Your Wikipedia entry notes that detractors find you overly ambitious. I’m always puzzled when I hear that criticism, whether it’s aimed at a writer or a musician or whomever. I would guess you’ve drawn inspiration from others who may have faced that same complaint. Who comes to mind?
Foer: The term is so dumb that it’s hard to even think about. I guess I would hope they say that about every author I like.
BBC: “Catching sight of a pretty woman really is enough to throw a man’s decision-making skills into disarray, a study suggests.”
New York Times Corrections: “While he was hired to edit Page Six in 1985 and is its current editor, Mr. Johnson left The Post briefly in 1990 to work at The Daily News and in television; his work on Page Six has not been continuous since 1985.”
BBC: “The author behind the film The Graduate faces eviction from his home in East Sussex because of rent arrears. Novelist Charles Webb, 66, and his partner have only days to pay two months’ overdue rent, totalling nearly £1,600, on their flat in Hove….The Californian author accepted a one-off payment of £14,000 for the novel, while the film made £60m….The theatrical adaptation of the classic movie took another £10m in its recent West End stage run.”
The origin of He-Man: “[Mattel president] Ray Wagner had passed on Star Wars because the license property apparently required $750,000 upfront. At the time, for an unproven property, that was a highly exorbitant sum. So Wagner had Mattel’s Prelimary Design Department – of which I was a member – Come up with viable male action figure concepts. I had been real impressed by Frank Frazetta paintings and I [submitted an idea] that I called monster fantasy. But it was actually a barbarian fantasy.”